RESUMO
There is a growing need for precise diagnosis and personalized treatment of disease in recent years. Providing treatment tailored to each patient and maximizing efficacy and efficiency are broad goals of the healthcare system. As an engineering concept that connects the physical entity and digital space, the digital twin (DT) entered our lives at the beginning of Industry 4.0. It is evaluated as a revolution in many industrial fields and has shown the potential to be widely used in the field of medicine. This technology can offer innovative solutions for precise diagnosis and personalized treatment processes. Although there are difficulties in data collection, data fusion, and accurate simulation at this stage, we speculated that the DT may have an increasing use in the future and will become a new platform for personal health management and healthcare services. We introduced the DT technology and discussed the advantages and limitations of its applications in the medical field. This article aims to provide a perspective that combining Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) technology; the DT will help establish high-resolution models of patients to achieve precise diagnosis and personalized treatment.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Facet joints have been discussed as influential factors in the development of lumbar degeneration, which includes disc herniation and degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis. Facet orientation (FO) and facet tropism (FT) are two important structural parameters of the lumbar facet joints. Many previous studies have focused on single parameter analysis of the lumbar spine. Owing to the correlation between independent variables, single-factor analysis cannot reflect the interaction between variables; however, there has been no corresponding biomechanical method developed to address this problem. PURPOSE: To investigate the complex biomechanical influences on the lumbar spine when vertebral FO and FT are varied using finite element analysis (FEA) and contour maps visualization, and analyze the biomechanical role of facet joint structural parameters in the process of lumbar degenerative diseases. STUDY DESIGN: A biomechanical modelling, analysis, and verification study was performed. METHODS: A three-dimensional non-linear FEA model of 3 denucleated intervertebral discs (L2-3, L3-4, L4-5) with adjacent vertebral bodies (L2-L5) was created. Previously performed in vitro experiments provided experimental data for the range of motion in each load direction that was used for calibration. For 12 lumbar models, different facet joint angles relative to the sagittal plane at both L3-4 facet joints were simulated for 35°≤FO≤50° and 0°≤FT≤15°. By modifying different values of FO and FT, FEA simulation of different lumbar spine models was performed. Contour maps were used to visualize the FO- and FT-relevant data. RESULTS: Under flexion, extension, and torsion moments, facet joint contact force and intradiscal stress increased with increasing FT. In the condition where FT remained 0° and increasing FO values, facet joint contact force and intradiscal stress remained low with no apparent increasing or decreasing trend when the model was under flexion, extension, and torsion moments. In the condition where FO and the FT values were varied at the same time, the highest force and stress regions in the contour maps were observed when all three types of moments were applied. Stress distributions of the L3-4 disc with different FT and FO values showed disc stress increased significantly with increases of FT and was concentrated on the ipsilateral region of the facet joint with the more sagittal orientation. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of FO and FT has an important impact on the corresponding disc and facet joints, but FT played a more significant role. Moreover, disc stress was concentrated on the ipsilateral region of facet joint with greater sagittal orientation when FT existed. FT with high sagittal orientation may increase risk of recurrent LDH due to increase ipsilateral disc pressure. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: These biomechanical findings may help clinicians to understand the prognosis of some lumbar degenerative conditions.